while washington bickers over the fiscal cliff and who's going to pay more in taxes, in great britain, lawmakers are telling some american companies it is time to start paying their fair share there in the uk. even throwing around terms such as shame, outrageous when talking about it. executives from google, amazon, and starbucks all appeared before a parliamentary committee looking into how international companies minimize the tax they pay in the uk. richard quest is in london to explain it all. now, richard, not necessarily talking about tax evasion here. it's more like avoidance, minimization, what's the concern? >> reporter: that's exactly the point. the companies are not breaking the law, not doing anything wrong. the accounts committee described their actions as immoral claiming they have r. so arranging their tax affairs so as to pay no tax in the country where the money is earned. this applies to google, which uses ireland, applies to amazon, on the continent, and it applies to starbucks in amsterdam. what we learned is how these companies arrange their affairs. so even though